It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and it is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.

The state is a tourist and industrial hotspot; it is known for its cultural heritage, amenable climate and geographical features, ranging from the seaside beaches to the Borborema Plateau.

Most of what is now the state of Paraíba became part of the Captaincy of Itamaracá, which comprised a thin band of area stretching from the Tordesillas line at the far western extremity to the Ponta do Seixas, the easternmost point of Brazil.

The principal reasons for heightened tensions were the encroachment of settlers on indigenous territory, driven by the establishment of sugarcane plantations and the increasing nutritional needs of a larger population; the new compulsory labor relations imposed by the Portuguese, which implied the abandonment of the indigenous agricultural production system, essential for the survival of the villages; and the fact that though they were banned from attacking Portuguese settlements, their own villages were subject to attacks from settlers searching for slave labor.

[9] Eventually, the tensions came to a head when the Potiguara people, urged on by the French, gathered around 2,000 tribesmen from Paraíba and Rio Grande and attacked the Tracunhaém plantation in 1574, killing all residents.

The event had powerful reverberations in Lisbon, leading to King Henry creating the Royal Captaincy of Paraíba, which was subordinate directly to the Portuguese Crown.

Finally, in 1584, the new governor-general, Manuel Teles Barreto, mounted a successful expedition with the help of the captain-major of the captaincy, Frutuoso Barbosa, and the fleet of Admiral D. Diogo Flores de Valdés.

[7][8] Owing to its lucrative sugarcane industry, the Captaincy of Paraíba proved to be one of the most economically successful regions in Portuguese America, alongside Pernambuco and Bahia.

Following their expulsion from Salvador, the Dutch made their first appearance on Paraíban territory on June 20, 1625,[11] when they arrived in the Bay of Traição to treat their sick[12] and bury their dead.

[11] The Dutch Admiral, Boudewijn Hendricksz, quickly formed an alliance with the Potiguaras, promising them protection in return for military support against the Portuguese.

It arrived in Paraíba in February 1849, led by Maximiano Machado and Borges da Fonseca, demanding various social and economic reforms, such as land ownership changes, democracy, and freedom of the press.

This revolt was a reaction to new modernization laws from the Imperial government that, it was falsely rumored, would enslave the lower-classes of workers in Paraíba now that the slave trade was prohibited in Brazil.

[25] In the April 1919 federal election, the Paraíban candidate Epitácio Pessoa won; at the time, he was leading the Brazilian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference.

[29] The sertão was also home to other groups operating outside the law, namely the cangaço bandits (cangaceiros), the most well-known of which is Virgulino Ferreira da Silva (Lampião).

This was especially the case with José Pereira Lima, a political leader of the municipality of Princesa Isabel and an ally of presidential candidate Júlio Prestes.

Generating great national commotion, especially among the states of the Liberal Alliance,[32] the death of João Pessoa was one of the triggers of the Brazilian Revolution of 1930 that brought Vargas to power.

[35][36] Between the 1930 revolution and Vargas' fall from power in 1946, the state of Paraíba was governed by ten federal appointees, the first being Antenor de França Navarro (1930–1932) and the last being José Gomes da Silva (1946–1947).

Pedro Gondim, the governor of Paraíba, had been allied with Goulart, resulting in his mandate being revoked and his political rights being suspended for ten years by the new administration.

[40] In 1997, the body of former president João Pessoa was transferred from Rio de Janeiro to the eponymous capital of Paraíba, where he was buried in a mausoleum built by the state government.

[56][57] In the entire state, the period from October to December is the hottest and driest of the year, whereas June to August is the coldest, with temperatures in some areas reaching below 20 °C.

[59][60] In 1987, a team led by gemstone prospector Heitor Dimas Barbosa uncovered tourmaline crystals in the Batalha mine, about 50 km away from Patos.

In 2006, the LMHC (Laboratory Manual Harmonization Committee) agreed that "Paraíba" should be simplified to "paraiba" and should refer to a variety of tourmaline instead of indicating a geographic origin.

[64] The term "paraiba tourmaline" may now refer to gems found in Brazil, Nigeria, and Mozambique that contain copper and have the characteristic fluorescent blue-green color.

[69] Religion in Paraíba (2010) According to the 2010 census, the population of Paraíba is made up of Roman Catholics (76.96%), Protestants (15.16%), Spiritists (0.62%), Jehovah's Witnesses (0.47%), Brazilian Apostolic Catholics (0.22%), Mormons (0.11%), Orthodox Christians (0.05%), Candomblecists (0.035%), Umbanda (0.029%), Esoteric (0.023%), Jewish (0.017%), Eastern religious (0.014%), indigenous traditions ( 0.010%), spiritualists (0.004%), Islamic (0.002%), Hindus (0.002%) and Afro-Brazilian religious (0.001%), in addition to other religiosities.

Located in the municipality of Bayeux, eight kilometres (5.0 mi) from downtown João Pessoa, Presidente Castro Pinto International Airport is currently undergoing expansion and remodeling work, which will raise the terminal's annual capacity to 860 thousand passengers.

[citation needed] Located in the interior of the state of Paraíba, in the city of Campina Grande, João Suassuna Airport was remodeled in 2003, receiving a new terminal with capacity of 250 thousand passengers a year.

With the possibility for new flights, the air cargo movement will be able to grow, along with the number of tourists coming to attend the city's São João Festival.

A panel measuring 17 by 3.5 metres (56 by 11 feet) in the front of the building carries a poem by the Paraíban writer Ariano Suassuna, in homage to his father, for whom the airport is named.

During these fifteen days, there are bonfires, fireworks, and folk dancing in the streets (step names are in French, which shows the mutual influences between court life and peasant culture in the 17th, 18th, and 19th-century Europe).

The revolution succeeded in toppling the Old Republic and installing Getúlio Vargas—who was from neither Minas Gerais nor São Paulo—as the president of Brazil, however, João Pessoa was assassinated; there is still debate as to whether the motive behind his murder was personal, political, or both.